


Playing God

by Burgie



Category: Star Stable Online
Genre: M/M, warning for animal death
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-09-02
Updated: 2017-09-02
Packaged: 2018-12-22 21:41:05
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,219
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11975589
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Burgie/pseuds/Burgie
Summary: Halli tries to help Jack catch the GED worker, but she meets a terrible fate.





	Playing God

Jack had no great love for James. Honestly, the little shit could walk off a cliff for all he cared. But, the road was a mess, and Jack was pretty sure that horses and buses couldn't have caused that much damage. Not normal horses, anyway, but he was pretty sure that James wasn't renting out Dark Horses. Not at those prices, anyway.

So Jack rode up the old cobblestone road, riding around the biggest holes and piles of rubbish and pools of oil. How did the oil even get there? He hoped that the driver of that car had discovered the problem before they'd gotten too far away. But honestly, why drive a car when you could ride a horse? And how did cars even play a purpose here, anyway?

"I think I can see the problem," said Dale, breaking Jack out of his thoughts.

"Huh? Oh," said Jack, seeing the GED man sitting on a crate reading what looked very much like a comic book. In fact, upon riding up to the man and dismounting, Jack discovered that he was, indeed, reading a comic book.

"Hey, what are you doing here?" the man barked, getting to his feet and hastily stuffing the comic book under the crate.

"We're investigating a crime, I guess," said Jack with a shrug. It wasn't like Dale could talk to this man, after all.

"And what crime might that be?" asked the man. "It's not against the law to take a break!"

"A break from what?" asked Jack. "Digging holes in the road?"

"No! Do you see any digging equipment here? Go and ask around, see if the farmers have heard anything," said the man. "You can't prove anything."

With a shrug, Jack rode over to Barney's silo, where the man said that he hadn't seen or heard anything unusual. He even showed Jack the most precious picture ever, showing that the road had looked normal a few days ago.

"Alright," said Jack, nodding. "Thanks for your help, Barney."

"Ah, sorry I couldn't be of more help," said Barney, rubbing the back of his neck. 

"It's fine," said Jack. "You've actually helped me more than you think." After all, Spirit found several chipmunks in the road, so Jack knew that they could dig through it. The lettuce leaves had been suspicious, too, though he hadn't seen any chipmunks. Maybe Dale's trotting had scared them off. There was one man who would know for sure, though.

"Jack, what a pleasant surprise!" said Steve, smiling as Jack rode up to him.

"Hey, Steve," said Jack, giving the man a rare smile. They shared a love of animals, which Jack greatly admired of him.

"Have you come to feed the birds and chipmunks again?" asked Steve. "Because you might be disappointed if you came to see the chipmunks."

"Oh? Why?" asked Jack, dismounting Dale and walking with Steve over to where the chipmunks had been living since Jack had relocated them.

"Well, it's the strangest thing- I haven't seen hide nor hair of them in a while," said Steve. "I know you took some of them, but you didn't take them all, did you?"

"No," said Jack. "Huh, that's weird. And sad. I'm gonna miss them."

"I already miss them," said Steve. "But who knows, maybe they'll appear for you. Good luck." And with that, Steve clapped a hand on Jack's shoulder and walked back over to stand in his usual spot. Jack walked into the middle of the hole-filled ground where the chipmunks lived and sat down to wait.

Quite a bit of time passed, and Jack scowled as the noise from the farm filtered over. No wonder the chipmunks weren't appearing- there was so much noise that he could barely hear himself think.

"No luck?" asked Steve, seeing Jack's disappointed face as he walked back over and climbed into Dale's saddle.

"Nope," said Jack. "Maybe it's too noisy?"

"It's never bothered them before," said Steve. "But they might have moved to somewhere with better food."

"Why, though?" asked Jack. "They get fed great food here."

"Ah, who knows?" said Steve with a shrug. Jack hummed thoughtfully.

"I'll be back," said Jack. "Hopefully with the chipmunks." He rode off, headed back to the new worksite. But this time, he rode on the grass and stood on the road to look at the holes. Sure enough, chipmunks started popping up.

"Well, would you look at that," said the man. "Seems the road was ruined by chipmunks. Who would've thought?"

"And who was putting the lettuce leaves on the road?" asked Jack.

"There are no cameras, no eye-witnesses, you can't prove anything," said the man. "Now, scram!" Jack rolled his eyes and rode around to the back of the worksite. Finding a glass bottle, Jack picked it up and threw it over towards the car, where it shattered. The man walked over to the car to investigate, and Jack took the opportunity to peek inside the storage containers. Sure enough, one held chipmunks while the other held lettuces.

"Gotcha," Jack muttered, and turned to see the man looking nervous.

"You can't prove anything!" the man blurted, and ran to his car.

Jack chased after him, Dale galloping and jumping over the barrels that the man threw back at them. Jack had no clue how the man could drive while throwing out the barrels. And then there was a yap, and Jack smiled at the sight of Halli running from the other side of the road to help. But she was running in the wrong direction. She growled and ran in to snap at the wheels, but then she yelped and there was a thud.

"Halli, no!" Jack cried, pulling up Dale and dismounting so he could run to the tiny form of the injured fox lying on the road. He fell to his knees, not feeling the pain of his knees smashing into the cobblestones, and knelt over her. There were patches on Halli's white fur stained red with her blood, but she didn't look that injured. She moved her paws feebly, but couldn't manage to stand. Instead, she looked up at Jack with sad, pain-filled eyes, and whined.

"It's okay, c'mon, you'll be fine, Ydris'll fix you," said Jack, taking his jacket off and bundling her up in it. He tried not to move her too much, worried that it might injure her more, and didn't care who might see the scars on his wrists. There was no hope of riding back with Halli in his arms, that would require moving her too much. So he could only walk as fast as he could over to the highland.

"Jack?" asked Ydris when he opened the door of his wagon.

"Fix her," said Jack, glad that Walter had the sense to only sniff around his ankles. Ydris hovered his hands over the injured bundle, and the Pandorian spiral around his eye glowed brightly. But then, Ydris dropped his hands.

"I'm sorry," said Ydris. "It's too late."

"How is it too late?" Jack snapped at him. "You're a wizard, you have the power, you can fix her, you have to fix her!"

"I can't," said Ydris. "She's too far gone, Jack. There's barely any life force left in her. I'm sorry."

"Then take it from something else!" said Jack. "Take it from me, Ydris, I don't care, just fix her!"

"That's dark magic," said Ydris. "It goes against everything I stand for. If I use dark magic, there's no coming back from it."

"Well, there's no coming back for her, either, if you don't do something!" said Jack. "Would you bring me back?"

"Yes," said Ydris. "But that's different-"

"No, it's not," said Jack, turning and walking out of the wagon. "Halli is my life, you know that."

Jack wanted to run away, but he couldn't go very far. He was already worn out from the walk here, and he wasn't fit enough, and Halli really was fading fast.

She made it to the edge of the Hollow Woods, and then, Halli began to shake in Jack's grip. He bit his lip but sobbed anyway as he sat down against a tree. Not the one under which they'd met, though. That was too far away.

Halli looked up at Jack at first, struggling to get up and lick his face like she often did when he cried, but she couldn't manage to move that much. Instead, she licked his hand, leaving a smear of blood on it. Jack didn't mind. It was oddly comforting. Even in her final moments, Halli was trying to comfort him.

And then, letting out one final breath, Halli lay still. 

"No," Jack whispered, stroking her fur. He squeezed his eyes shut as tears slipped out, and hugged her little broken body. She couldn't heal this heartbreak, not when she was the cause, but Jack felt so much worse when he walked over to the right tree and laid her down at the base of it. He didn't have the strength to bury her just yet. Not emotional, not physical. He barely had the strength to make it back to the inn at Moorland, where he entered his bedroom and didn't come out.

Ydris sat in his wagon, his fingers steepled together and pressing into his lips. He'd failed Jack. Failed him, when Jack needed him the most. He knew damn well how important Halli was to Jack, how his fur babies brought him joy that nothing else could give him. How they gave him life, and a reason to live. Ydris wasn't offended or jealous, not when they meant Jack's life. And now he'd as good as killed him.

There was a spell. Ydris knew of it, had spent the majority of his teenage years looking for it. A spell to breathe life back into the dead, to cheat death. But it would require a sacrifice. A great sacrifice. Not just one life, but the lives of many. But was it worth it?

His mind made up, Ydris rose to his feet quickly, startling Walter into lifting his head up. Ydris strode across the wagon, the newspaper crinkling under his feet, and opened his large spell book. He flipped right to the back of it, where the forbidden spells resided. And there it was- reanimation and, under it, resuscitation. Revival. To bring life back to the dead. He just hoped that it wasn't too late, and that Halli wouldn't mind her soul being plucked back from Elysium.

The next step was to consult a map. The Unfortunate Dews Farm and Forgotten Fields were both too dead to take life from, but there was another abandoned Dews Farm not too far from the first one. Ydris placed his hand on the map, still holding the book in his other hand, and found himself there.

Ydris felt guilty as he began to cast the spell. The circle of effect would be immediate and large, but there was no life here. Only the trees and grass, and nobody would question land dying near where GED was working. A crackling pink fire caught his attention, but it was a little further away. The purple smog was also concerning, but it, too, was far away. As a circle of black spread out from Ydris, he concentrated only on the feeling of the life force seeping into him. Grass blackened and curled up, turning to dust which immediately crumbled. Trees shed their leaves like tears, and quickly grew as brittle as a tree in the grip of a savage winter. Nothing would grow here for years, and Ydris felt sorry that such a beautiful place should have to give up that beauty. But it was worth it.

Back in the wagon, Ydris cast his magic out to Elysium, and plucked from it the soul of a beautiful fox. She yapped in delight at the sight of him, swishing her tail, and was only too happy to jump into her body. She stood once more in the Hollow Woods, breathing in the forest air, and then followed Ydris back to Moorland.

When the door creaked open, Jack didn't move.

"Go away," Jack mumbled. But there was a clicking sound, that of claws against the inn's floor. Jack felt his heart stop. Had he actually died from heartbreak? Or was it Walter coming to visit him? But then a little body jumped up onto the bed, and Jack gasped at the sight of the fox. "Halli! Did I die too?" His little fox yapped happily and licked his face.

"You're not dead, Jack," said another voice, and Jack sat up to see Ydris, still petting Halli and scratching behind her ears.

"What? But I thought you didn't want to save her," said Jack.

"I changed my mind," said Ydris. "Screw the rules, my soul wouldn't be happy if you died so it can just put up with having to take life to save Halli's."

"Whose?" asked Jack, his hand stilling on Halli's back.

"Oh, just some plants on Dews Farm. Don't worry, there weren't any animals in the area," said Ydris.

"Thank you for saving her," said Jack, smiling as Halli licked his cheek.

"I couldn't live with myself if I didn't," said Ydris. "Some things are more important than rules."


End file.
